The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.

Island map for computer game

Hi, I'm making a fantasy game about changing events in the past and future for a bunch of races, and I could use a map to tell the story more clearly. It's not a vital part of the game, so the artist can maintain copyright for it. I'd still like the rights to distribute, of course!

I have nearly no artistic talent because of my inability to visualize things in an interesting way, so I give full flexibility to the artist to create as they like. The game's story and movements will all be generated from the map, so the map does have some impact.

No tight time constraints, just within 6 months. It doesn't have to be very realistic, just informative. No scales and such.

Island overview
Just to get an overview of what the races would be like to give an idea of what the map would look like. Each would have their own territory, and spread out from there, so, their habitat would be in different parts of the map; e.g. humans north, goblins south, elves east, orcs west, dwarves middle.

Elves - living in the trees: forests or jungle
Humans - living at a plains area, near a river delta
Goblins - came from the swamps
Orcs - starting at a forested area, along a river
Dwarves - mountains/hilly area

I'd like it to be around full screen size - at least 1024x768 pixels, though a bigger one is fine; it could always be resized smaller.

I hope it'd be an interesting concept for someone here to work with, especially those who like creating their own geography, and want to see the inhabitants react with what they created. Again, full credit to the map maker for it, the whole game is experimental artwork anyway.

I could give more details if you like, just keeping this post short. Please e-mail me at smuzani [at] gmail [.] com, or just reply here if you have any questions

I did sift through them a little, haven't yet found something that has everything, and a little uncomfortable with re-using something that's been used elsewhere. There's a bit of distaste in the computer games world about reusing artwork

Originally Posted by Juggernaut1981

#1 Which races have a history of friendliness? Which have an "on again off again" relationship? Which have a long-standing hatred?

Ah, since it's a game about changing history, that's for the player to decide. A lot of the game is about using diplomacy to fine tune a civilization. Sometimes it's advantageous to start wars to make a race stronger and force them into arms wars. Sometimes they conflict over territory or resources, sometimes a war spawns an alliance.

Generally, goblins are unfriendly with everyone, but at the bottom of the food chain. Orcs and humans are aggressive and get into a lot of wars, but humans also get into a lot of alliances.

So, all of them are in an "on again off again" relationship. It's the player's role to decide.

#2 Are any of the races "off-shoots" of another... i.e. Are Goblins midget jungle Orcs? Are Goblins "Jungle Dwarves"? Are elves "forest humans", etc...

All of them are designed to be unique. Orcs are descended from goblins and appear a bit late into the game but they're bigger, stronger, and have a very different culture.

Since we're on races, I think how they live would be a bit relevant, since it's somewhat different from other fantasy worlds.
Humans build houses on the ground, live in them, and protect themselves with walls.
Dwarves dig their homes out of the mountains and hills, using the mountains as natural walls.
Elves refuse to cut down trees, so they build their homes on top of trees and defend themselves with ranged weapons.
Goblins build simple underground fortresses filled with traps. But their real population centers are in less obvious places away from these fortresses.
Orcs live in jungle areas above ground, but eagerly slash and burn forests to clear grounds for houses. They hold the "a good offense is the best defense" principle and neglect to defend their cities.

Hi, I was just wondering if there were any artwork done yet for this project, in order to give a first impression of the game's mood. Will visuals of the game be rather cartoonish or more realistic in the design, or even darker?

The questions were all about the back-story of the world. What the PCs do to it is a different ballgame. The one thing that I always admired about Tolkein's work is he built a history of races then figured out how it would interact with everything else (languages, societal structures, etc).

This is about figuring out who lives next to who, where the roads would go, which races would have migrated to ensure that nice physical boundaries are between them and their enemies.

Example: Orcs came from Goblins and were driven out/exiled as freaks, therefore the Orcs were banished to the far side of river X into the deeper jungle.

Example: Humans had a long standing war with dwarves over mineral resources, consequently there are a number of heavily fortified towns on both sides of the war with few roads between the civilisations and good roads within each civilisation.

So your world history must shape your map and if there isn't a heap of detailed history, personally I'd be asking for it. In general for my own work is it is "rough map first, history second, final map".

Hi, I was just wondering if there were any artwork done yet for this project, in order to give a first impression of the game's mood. Will visuals of the game be rather cartoonish or more realistic in the design, or even darker?

No, sorry. I actually hoped for the map to be the first piece of artwork, something that'd influence both the artwork and the plot.

@Juggernaut1981:
Ah, I get it. The game starts off with no interaction between the races. All the races have been arrived or been 'created' at different parts of the world, and have no interaction with each other, except for the orcs who split off from the goblins. The orcs are an offshoot of genetically modified goblins, who strengthen themselves with magic, and crossbreed with other races to become as strong as possible, and refuse to live in cowardice like the other goblins.

The game itself is all about changing history. The player sees the future, goes back in time to change something, and hope that it affects the future.

Example: In year 510, monsters attack a human city and destroy it because of inadequate defenses. The player goes back into year 370, change history so that orcs raid humans for gold. The humans then build up defenses and weapons technology over time. By year 510, the human city is now a fort and they have no trouble fighting off the monster attacks.

Example 2: The dwarves discover mithril. Humans want it, so they fight over it. Both start a war that cripples both sides. The player then goes back in time, and tells the human to trade iron and gold for mithril, making both races friends, and preventing a war. From that point in history, the dwarves and humans are good partners.

Sorry I didn't mention it before. Just wanted a nice landscape map, not with the cities and roads included yet